Police Harassment Continues - The Problem of
5150s and Jail Time
The month of January saw a continued elevated
harassment by the police of the homeless both in the Southside and in
the downtown Shattuck area. Another sweep occurred around People’s Park
this month following last month’s sweep. In the Southside it seems a lot
of the homeless in the area have been cited for trespassing or other
violations like illegal possession of a shopping cart.
Also, there were aggressive police efforts to clear
the area around Martin Luther King Jr. Park of homeless sleeping. A
group of women sleeping by the main library at night were moved on. Open
container alcohol violation tickets were also given to a number of the
homeless. It also seems the number of homeless going to John George
Psychiatric Pavilion picked up in joint actions of the police and the
mobile crisis team has been up significantly of late. People continue to
have their belongings taken on the street by public works working with
the police.
In January, a number of street youth reappeared who
were sent to Santa Rita over the holidays. Feelings of outrage, of
wanting to respond by acts of violent window breaking were expressed by
three people on the streets to myself but were not acted upon as once
again I sought to keep the peace. This is why we decided to organize a
speak-out at the city council to address the issues of the homeless on
January 24th (see below).
No Shelter from the
Weather - No Housing
The Berkeley Homeless Union now under the direction
of Bob Mills and with my collaboration from the BOSS Community
Organization Team in response to the anger over the continued police
harassment (see above), jailing and 5150ing of the homeless (see below)
and concerns about the emergency winter shelter being closed (see the
Dec. 2005 street report) acted to get people organized to try to keep
the peace at home by getting people to go to the city council to speak
out about the issues we have been hearing about. I hear these concerns
as I go about doing my street outreach.
Bob who is often to be found at Tully’s coffee shop
on Center and Shattuck (where the Berkeley Homeless Union meets every
Thursdays at 1pm) hears them there or out on Shattuck. On the January 24th
city council meeting six of us showed and it being a slow council night
it turned out were able to get a good amount of public comment in. The
city council asked city staff to look into getting St. Mark’s roof fixed
(damaged before New Year’s Eve during a torrential rain) or a new site
found.
The following city council meeting the city staff
tried to put the onus of finding a site for the emergency shelter on
J.C. Orton and the Catholic Workers. In public comment I spoke to this
having talked to J.C. Orton who had spoken to a number of churches to no
avail. 4 of us spoke at that meeting. Meetings in February were set up
with Mayor Tom Bates and Michael Caplan from the city manager’s office
to deal with the issue of the need for shelter, for housing and around
the situation of the lack of vouchers from the Berkeley Housing
Authority. This was arranged by Danny McMullan from the Disabled
People’s Outside Project.
We began meeting with Pat Wall around the issues of
the emergency winter shelter, the lack of Section 8 vouchers in the face
of stepped up police enforcement and jailing and 5150ing of the homeless
and concerns that the brick and mortar focus of the mayor is an
expensive and will defund other homeless services when with the number
of for rent signs in Berkeley more Section 8 vouchers would be a better
more effective way to house the homeless but with the problems of the
Berkeley Housing Authority paperwork to get those vouchers is not being
submitted and insensitive staff are a source of abuse for clients.
It is these client complaints that attracted the
attention of the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development
department. Meanwhile Oakland Housing Authority at the end of the month
opened up their waiting list to new applicants.
Mobile Crisis, 5150s and
the Police
At the Berkeley Mental Health Commission which I
chair Berkeley Mental Health mobile crisis worker Terry Kalahar asked
that the Commission pass an advisory resolution urging that mobile
crisis workers no longer be required to 5150 calls (where a client may
be hospitalized for 72 hours if they are evaluated to be a threat to
themselves or another or as David Wei also of the mobile crisis team
says is true in 40% of the 5150s of the homeless they are deemed gravely
unable to care for themselves) have to always go out with a police
officer.
There has been a significant split in the BMH staff
over this issue. David Wei addressed these concerns as did BMH director
Harvey Tureck, concerns about staff safety. David Wei also feels by
working with the police he is able to keep homeless people out of jail
and to make the police more sensitive to mental health client issues.
New BMH commissioner Pam Wilson who has been homeless spoke of the
problems maintaining hard to get housing when police show up with mobile
crisis raising concerns among neighbors and landlords.
Mental health clients have lost housing as result
of this and being hospitalized. I have talked to a number of mental
health clients who became homeless after losing housing as a result of
their being in mental crisis and lack of sensitivity from the mental
health system and due to being ousted and humiliated by these sorts of
interventions. The commission voted 7 for, with 4 abstentions and 1
opposed to recommend to BMH that only in situations where there was a
concern about the possibility of being in a violent situation would
having a police officer be required as is policy in San Francisco. Staff
was asked to work on developing a plan to address both staff and client
concerns about safety around 5150 calls.
People's Park Advisory
Board
On Thursday Jan. 19th the first meeting
of the reinstituted People’s Park community advisory board as selected
by the University of California occurred at Mario’s La Fiesta’s Banquet
Room right next to the park. I have been pushing for its revival as a
way to work out conflict between the university, park users and
activists, the homeless, neighbors and merchant concerns. Many of the
activists such as myself who applied for the Board were rejected so we
wanted to see if there was any activist representation. Fortunately Dana
Merryday who has been a voice for our concerns on the Board in recent
years past and Lydia Gans from Food not Bombs were present but in the
name of “balance” the concerns of park users was a distinct and clear
minority.
The big issue of contention of late has been over
the Free Box. In the fall of last year activists built free boxes only
to have them torn down by the University. The University and neighbors
feel that the Free Box torched last March is a magnet for drug problems
but they also complained about the drug problem being bad and even
worsening in the time after the loss of the Free Box and have used this
to justify police sweeps of the park. So obviously the Free Box is not
the source of the problem. Meanwhile there is no place except the
Suitcase Clinic on Tuesday evening where homeless people can get
clothes. BOSS has started a clothes collection program Berkeley’s
homeless after it was unable to deliver donated clothes to the People’s
Park when the University removed it.
Putting together a flyer and doing outreach the day
before I was instrumental in getting 13 folks out to the Advisory Board
meeting where the removal of the Free Box and the iron fist of police
action against the homeless in People’s Park were major focuses in the
public comment. Originally the public comment was slated to go at the
end of the meeting but Irene Haggerty of the University decided to move
it to the start as had been the practice in the past. Jon Selawsky a
progressive member of the Berkeley school board moved to have the Free
Box issue put on the next meeting agenda which to our satisfaction got
the support of the majority of the board as did the issue of addressing
the need for social services for the homeless in People’s Park.
It had been my hope that by not aggressively
countering the UCPD police action with Copwatch activity that they would
go after the specific drug gang activity in People’s Park that many of
the homeless who use the park or did before it stop feeling safe. They
have done blanket sweeps instead and the park still remains a place
where Berkeley Liberation Radio deejay a man friendly to the hippie 60s
roots of the park was assaulted in the park by thugs. I feel UCPD’s iron
fist has only made the problem worse by driving those who care about the
vitality of People’s Park away. The police statistics given out by UC
show police action is not directed against drug dealing but is rather
petty harassment of people for things like bike code violations.
The University has opposed having a bike rack in
People’s Park thus making it easier for bicycles to be stolen in
People’s Park which has been an ongoing problem. I feel drug war tactics
have once again proven to be totally counter-productive in helping
engender a lack of community an atmosphere of fear, of being in a war
zone.
We believe that the University wants the present
situation as a way to dispirit support for People’s Park as a center of
countercultural resistance and to eventually justify building over the
park. We do not believe they are serious about going after serious
criminal activity. By arresting homeless people and sending them to
Santa Rita for minor petty offenses the UC staff and police have caused
the homeless to feel hostile to their efforts and have lowered their
spirits into despondency and fear and sleep deprivation.
Overall much as I have loved People’s Park I feel
very dispirited feel there is not sufficient community support to
“reclaim” People’s Park both from the University and the anti-people
criminal activity that preys on the homeless and others such as the
neighbors. I feel the neighbors have demonized park activists so there
is no real communication of how we can work together to create a better
People’s Park.
I have been choosing to be spend less time there
because it seems I get better return putting my energies elsewhere since
the divide between the ideal that People’s Park is suppose to be about
and the depressing reality is distressing to me. I feel with
gentrification pushing activists out of Berkeley and into Oakland and
elsewhere like we fighting a losing rearguard battle.
I feel like the bubble of progressive radicalism
that Berkeley still represents and to a very significant degree is
slowly but surely succumbing to the pressures of gentrification but also
a growing despair in the face of the growing right wing assault on basic
freedoms, succumbing to a collective national atmosphere of engendered
fear to speak out for those freedoms and for economic justice.
I will
now quote from William H. Whyte in his book “City: Rediscovering the
Center” talking about public places “Fear proves itself…(security) moves
sharply cut down the number of people using the park-much to the delight
of dope dealers, who now had the place much more to themselves and their
customers.”
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